Fine tolerances

| 2 Comments
1/16th of an inch. That is the amount that this new rack is too narrow. The MSA20 and MSA1500 just plain will not fit between the uprights. Not going to happen. The fibre switch will fit with painful screeching noises, which I don't count as fitting. Clearly, this rack will have to be RMAed.

Wish I'da known that before I anchored it and got all the rails in. Fooy.

And since I've now seen three different people inspect the rack to see if there is any way to move the upright posts, I'll say this now. No. Not without a sledge hammer. Two of those other rack inspectors recommended a hammer independently of the other, the third had it suggested to him. The upright posts are held in place by horizontal braces that are themselves welded to the frame.

One bloody sixteenth. Bah.

2 Comments

Get a grinder and someone who knows how to use it. One of the most nervous moments I've ever had in this job to date wasn't a server crashing or anything like that. It was when I had asked for a horizontal wire rack to be cut so I could fit a dell rack where I needed it. Our electrician took a cutting wheel to the rack. Seeing sparks flying into monitors and on piles of power and network cables cause my breathing to be delayed for about a minute. I've since learned to trust him, even when I think he's nuts.

Ian, its funny that you mention that. We had to fit two sets of dell rails into a no-name rack. Our other servers mounted just fine with no-name adjustable rails, but the dell rails were 'L' shaped, and the lower leg of the 'L' was interfering with some support structures in the rack. (The old rails were just flat steel bolted together erector-set style, so they fit fine.)Luckily, on our campus we have a machine shop that makes custom scientific apparatus (cool stuff!), and this machine shop happens to be next door to where our servers are located. Sheepishly, I dropped in with the rails and they were able to cut notches which allowed the rails to fit perfectly. The only other option would have been to strip the rack (yeah, right) and remove what is probably there for a reason.... glad I'm not the only one to have mounting problems.